Professional Writer

Business Proposal Letter

Any good business owner will tell you that a key part of staying successful is giving back to the community. People are more willing to invest their time and money in a business that will do the same in return for them. Here at BeeReady, we understand the importance of being a socially responsible business, and we are proposing a plan to get Mansfield Missions involved with our mission to keep drunk drivers off the road. This will be mutually beneficial for our companies; we will profit from your support and funding, and you will be able to see firsthand the steps involved in becoming socially responsible—and reap the rewards that come with it.

Background and Goals

We understand that Mansfield Photography Studios currently donates some of its proceeds to local Boys and Girls clubs, but that its new charitable arm, Mansfield Missions, wishes to extend its generosity to others in the community. A big part of what your company does is bring people together, especially families, through photography. At BeeReady we bring families together, too—by keeping their children safe.

Miami is well known for its reputation as a “party city,” which means there is infinitely more risk for drunk driving here than in small towns. Statistics show that the majority of drunk driving occurs between the ages of 21-24, which is why BeeReady focuses much of its marketing strategies on this demographic. College students have the highest need for late-night beer delivery services, and not having to make beer runs after becoming intoxicated helps to reduce drunk driving in the age group where it is most prevalent. Apart from using our beer delivery services to reduce drunk driving, we donate 5% of all profits to alcohol and driving education programs at the Florida Safety Council. We want to integrate Mansfield Missions into this aspect of our company by helping us to raise awareness and show local citizens how to join our fight against drunk driving in Miami. We will also help your company get involved with the organizations that BeeReady does charitable work within the community. This will establish Mansfield Missions as a socially responsible business in Miami, which will give your customers incentive to continue working with you as well as encourage new customers to do business with you.

Proposed Plan

BeeReady proposes a mixed media campaign that uses photography and film to a) show the dangers of drunk driving, and b) show how BeeReady has combatted these dangers and changed the community since launching our services in Miami. The name of the campaign will be “Sober on the Streets.” BeeReady and Mansfield Photography Studios both have a large web presence, which we will use to advertise our campaign.

Step One: Finalize the Details. To get the campaign process started, we will arrange a meeting between our CMO, Ms. Lindsey Cook, and whichever members of your photography team you see fit to work on this project. At the meeting, various components of the campaign will be discussed, such as:

Film and photography strategies

Target audience (students or parents?)

Advertising and promotion techniques

Duration of campaign

Finances and compensation

A preliminary meeting will be helpful to get the ball rolling and to allow the representatives of our companies to get to know one another. It will also be an opportunity for Mansfield Photography Studios to showcase some of their past work to Ms. Cook so that she can get a feel for your film and photography style and contemplate how to best incorporate the campaign video into BeeReady’s marketing strategy once it is completed.

Step Two: Recruit People for Campaign. The obvious next step before we start shooting our campaign will be finding people who to use in our campaign video. While this will be primarily volunteer-based, we will consider offering discounts on our services and urge Mansfield Photography Studios to do the same. BeeReady currently has the names of three people who lost a family member to drunk driving and are willing to participate in a filmed interview for Sober on the Streets about how drunk driving affected their lives. Between these three people and any other recruits willing to discuss how drunk driving has affected their lives, we should have footage enough for the “dangers of drunk driving” end of the campaign. On the “plan for action” end of the campaign, we will find recruits to discuss how BeeReady has had a positive impact on them personally (i.e., how a late-night beer delivery service has eliminated the “need” for driving while intoxicated). We will also need to make sure that anyone we film for our campaign will sign a Photograph and Publicity Content Release Form for social media purposes.

Step Three: Shoot the Campaign. This step will be the bulk of the work we do for our project. We will interview the individuals speaking on behalf of Sober on the Streets and tape the interviews; we will also shoot different footage to use in our campaign consisting of still images (sites of drunk driving accidents in Miami, graves of people who died as a result, etc.) and motion sequences (a party scene and a swerving car, etc.). The campaign will focus less on the lighthearted and fun side of BeeReady, and more on the seriousness of the consequences of driving drunk rather than taking advantage of our easy-to-use beer delivery service. The campaign will imply that using BeeReady is the moral obligation of anyone who chooses to drink alcohol.

Step Four: Editing. This part of the campaign will be largely handled by Mansfield Photography Studios, as editing and compiling footage falls within your skillset. BeeReady intends to have some say in the final product, but will rely on your talent and expertise in this area to produce an effective and memorable campaign video.

Step Five: Advertising. This is the step where Mansfield Photography Studios/Mansfield Missions will truly start to reap the benefits of partnering with BeeReady. As stated before, both of our companies have a large online presence with our websites and social media sites. We will launch our campaign on both of our company’s sites. For BeeReady, the campaign video will function to raise awareness about drunk driving and to tell citizens of Miami how they can take action against drunk driving (by using our services). For Mansfield Photography Studios, the campaign video will establish your business as a socially responsible presence in the community, dedicated to ending drunk driving. Any parents who have ever had anxiety about their child becoming a victim to drunk driving (probably most parents), will be grateful to you for raising awareness about such an important issue and will be encouraged to use your services in the future. Running the Sober on the Streets campaign on your website will also show your customers that one of the most successful businesses in the Miami area chose you to promote their cause. This will encourage more people to use your services, especially after they see the outstanding quality of your work.

Step Six: Going Forward: After we complete and launch our campaign, we will continue to keep Mansfield Missions involved with our social responsibility in the community. BeeReady hosts a biannual event where speakers of all ages are invited to talk about their personal experiences with drunk driving, and we will invite Mansfield Photography Studios to document these events to use on your website.

Aside from our own events and projects, we have connections with several socially responsible organizations, such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), The Ocean Conservancy and, more recently, Salvation Army. BeeReady frequently volunteers for MADD’s Miami location: we participate in fundraising events (for example Walk Like MADD), help run information booths at community fairs, and speak at local high schools about their mission. We also help to keep our city’s beaches beautiful by volunteering for the annual Miami-Dade Coastal Cleanup (hosted by The Ocean Conservancy), because we know the importance of eliminating marine debris. In the last year BeeReady, has also taken steps to become involved with the Miami branch of the Salvation Army. Last June we hosted a donation pickup for used clothing, toys, and household items; we encouraged people to donate by giving out BeeReady coupons to donators. If Mansfield Missions signs on with BeeReady, we will extend our connections to you (and help get you involved with all of these events) to increase your involvement with the community.

Schedule

We hope you will comply with the following schedule so that we can complete our Sober on the Streets campaign in a timely fashion:

The following is a tentative schedule of the events mentioned in the “going forward” section of the plan:

Walk Like MADD (summer and fall walk dates) June 15, September 19

Salvation Army pickup July 31

Miami-Dade coastal cleanup August 20

MADD information booth at Miami-Dade County FairOctober 12

BeeReady biannual drunk driving awareness eventDecember 4

Staffing

BeeReady has gained much recognition and popularity in the community of Miami in the several years since we first launched our services. We consider ourselves well-qualified on maintaining a successful and socially responsible business. We feel that, as CMO, Ms. Cook is best suited to handling your involvement with Sober on the Streets, as the campaign is largely based on key concepts of advertising and marketing.

Working under Ms. Cook will be Ms. Caroline Forbes and Mr. Malik Donohue, both of whom work in the marketing department at BeeReady. Ms. Forbes and Mr. Donohue are both talented and dedicated workers who will be happy to assist your employees however necessary to ensure that the campaign project runs as smoothly as possible.

Budget

The estimated costs to complete the campaign portion of the plan are shown in Figure 1 below:

Professional time & consultation fees (estimated 100 hours at $27 per hour)

$2,700

Total:

$6,200

AuthorizationRequest

We believe, Ms. Mansfield, that Mansfield Photography Studios and Mansfield Missions will benefit greatly from BeeReady’s experience with social responsibility. Choosing to promote our campaign, Sober on the Streets, will show your dedication to becoming socially responsible and give you an amazing opportunity to showcase and advertise your work. If you sign the enclosed duplicate copy of this letter with a retainer of $3,100 by April 29, we will begin to development our campaign together the following week. This offer, including our discounted copyright fee, is in effect only until June 1.

Thank you for considering BeeReady as a potential partner in your goal to become a socially responsible business in the community. We look forward to doing business with you.